Workplace community development

Common studies will provide you with the readiness for studying, operating in working life and proactive development. Ethics, internationality and cultural diversity will create the foundation for community work and developing a professional background.  

You will familiarise yourself with basic community educator competencies and key educator skills. These include guidance, operational methods, improving a sense of inclusion and promoting diversity. These studies combine a theoretical basis with a working life orientation.

In the specialization studies for developing workplace communities, you will delve more deeper into the topical themes of developing working life and workplace communities. The studies are comprised of three larger study units, each of which is comprised of various courses. The Joint Activities as the Basis for Wellbeing at Work study unit focuses particularly on the key laws, personnel processes and practices governing working life and its actors. The Changing Structures of Working Life course explores themes and working life and societal trends that impact workplace communities. In the Developing the Learning and Workplace Community study unit, you will familiarise yourself with the knowledge base for values-based expertise and developing activities and how to apply it in practice. You will get to try out various development methods to improve community learning and expertise.

The workplace community development studies include three internships with varying lengths, during which students can familiarise themselves with the working environments of workplace community developers, implement actual working life projects and create networks. Students will seek internships from an organisation of their choice or will perform an exercise at their own workplace as a form of workplace learning. Humak’s research and development projects also offer diverse and interesting internship opportunities.

Optional studies give you the opportunity to tailor your degree by allowing you to select studies you find interesting and which support your career goals. You can select courses from Humak’s offering as well as from other partner universities of applied sciences. For example, you can supplement your degree by cross-studying courses in personnel management, business, entrepreneurship, organisational psychology, counselling, social work or service design at other universities.

The bachelor’s thesis for workplace development students is a practical working life research-development task performed as a group, pair or individually for a customer organisation. Typical themes for a bachelor’s thesis include Diversity and Inclusion in Working Life, Wellbeing and Coping at Work, Leadership, Renewing Organisational Culture, A Sense of Community and Interaction.

During the bachelor’s thesis process, you will develop your own expertise as well as the operations of the customer organisation’s workplace community, apply inclusive and operative methods in practice and create a concrete outcome (e.g. an operating model or guide) for the customer organisation to make use of.

At Humak, RPL, i.e. Recognition of Prior Learning, means in practice that a student can make use of their prior expertise to advance their studies. This expertise can come from work experience, prior studies or, for example, hobbies and volunteer work, if they are related to the goals of the studies. Approved skills are entered into the study register, which can compensate for a course partially or entirely. 

The RPL procedure is common in the workplace community development studies, as most of our students have already acquired working life experience. RPL allows for individual learning paths, expedites graduation and, at best, facilitates the combination of studies, work and other life. You do not need to study a subject that you are already well versed in, and can focus on what is important for your learning and career goals. 

We also offer you the opportunity to complete courses as summer studies